


Dancing and Donuts

by jamwrites



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Crystal Gems, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 09:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4661709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jamwrites/pseuds/jamwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's prom night for Beach City High, and all Greg Universe wants is that one dance with that one amazing girl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dancing and Donuts

Greg's fingers burned from playing. He wasn't sure how long he had been on stage by that point, staring out at the dark sea of faces and the sloppily painted sign hanging from the wall that read " _Prom_ ". Someone on the committee had attempted to string lights around the letters, but by now most of them were either peeling off or burnt out.

" _Yeah, baby, won't you surf this universe with me? We got a ways to go and a lot to see,_ " At this point in the gig he was on his backup, half-baked songs. His classmates had been desperate for a band after the last one had backed out, and Greg had jumped at the chance to be somewhere other than the dance floor for his prom. " _The planets are aligned, yeah. The stars have formed a crystal stairway to our heaven, yeah._ "

A shape caught his eye, moving through the crowd. He sang on as he watched her appear at the front of the mass of bodies, followed, of course, by her entourage. Greg swallowed, and kept singing. " _Won't you come away with me, won't you come-a come-a come-away with me._ " It was definitely her. Even in the dark, he could make out the shape of her hair, of her waist and the beautiful white dress that hugged it. And just like that, his world was spinning, warped. Warmth blossomed in his chest like embers coming to life, and why should he be aching, why shouldn't he play as best he could for her? She was looking at him, arms raised above her head, eyes half closed, swaying, grinning. The beat pounded in his ears. She was definitely, definitely looking at him.

" _I want to be a part of your universe, your universe, your univ-er-erse, yeah baby won't you surf this universe with me? We got a ways to go and a lot, we got a ways to go and a lot, we got a ways to go and a lot. To. See…_ " Before the last note had faded from the air, Greg was shoving his guitar into another band members' hand, vaulting off the stage, landing, breathing, smiling. Behind him, the band started up with another song, but he wasn't listening, only walking towards her.

"Greg!" Rose's eyes lit up when she saw him coming, and she threw back her head and laughed. "That song was  _amazing_!"

"Thanks," he grinned, suddenly very aware of Rose's groupies, standing around her like an array of weapons. He recognized them from the halls; Rose wasn't the type of person who walked alone. She always, always had people hanging around her, drawn into her orbit, refusing to leave. "I just, uh…I wanted to know if you wanted to may-maybe dance? A little?"

For a second he thought she was going to laugh again, but then she opened her mouth to say something, her lips already moving towards her eyes-

"Rose promised me the next dance." One of Rose's followers cut in, taking the tiniest of steps in front of her. Greg recognized the girl instantly; she was the one who never left Roses' side, who seemed to have every single class with her, who coerced the teachers into putting her by Rose on the seating charts. He didn't know her name, but he had heard she was some sort of fencing prodigy, winning all kinds of tournaments even though she was only a sophomore. "Sorry." The girl threw in, though there was no apology behind her voice.

"Pearl," Rose said, putting a hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "you and I have been dancing all night. Greg has been cooped on that stage, I bet he's just itching to have a dance."

"Then let him dance with Amethyst," Pearl muttered, but nobody seemed to hear her. Without even knowing it, their group had coalesced into a tiny circle, other students filling in the spaces around them. For just a moment, he too was a moon circling around Rose. He looked at the other girls; placing them was a little more difficult. He thought he knew the small freshman with the extremely dyed purple hair and matching dress as Amethyst. She had a shop class with him fifth hour, though whenever he had noticed her in it she always seemed to be more interested in playing with the power tools than actually making something.

Towering over both Amethyst and Pearl was Garnet. Rumors surrounded Garnet like a perfume, and whenever Greg had asked someone about her, he always got a different story. Some people thought she had been a pro boxer before she came to their school, even though she had just turned eighteen. No, others said, she had lived with the circus and wrestled bears for her act. With the way she racked up kills at the Thursday night volleyball matches, he almost could believe it. Greg passed by the weight room every day after school on his way to band, and Garnet was always in there, bench pressing more weight than most of the varsity football guys.

"Hey, don't dump me off on some stupid boy." Amethyst shot Greg a look. "No offense or anything."

"None taken." This was getting out of hand. All he had wanted was to ask Rose for a dance, to touch her hand, to do anything other than be interrogated by her friends. He could practically feel the holes Garnet was burning in the back of his head with her eyes. "Look you guys, it's really okay. I should be getting back to the stage anyway-"

"No, Greg, stay!" Rose crossed their circle and put a hand on his shoulder. Warmth blossomed from where she touched him, and the scent of her perfume wafted over him like a blanket. The other girls' stares melted away. It was only him and Rose. "I want you to stay."

Greg could almost hear Pearl's eye twitch. "But-"

"Pearl, can you get us some punch." Coming from Garnet, it wasn't a request.

"Yeah P," Amethyst was twerking now, shaking her butt in Pearl's face, flipping her hair like she was in the middle of a dance video instead of a prom. "you're looking a little  _thirsty_."

Blood rushed into Pearl's cheeks, but under all her makeup, her face almost looked blue. Greg could sense the tension among the girls. He really shouldn't be here; he was just going to make them fight.

But he also wanted to dance with Rose. Was that so hard? To ask for just a few minutes out of a whole night? He should have known better than to expect to get his wish. Pulling celestial bodies from their orbits was almost impossible, an act that needed the impact of an asteroid.

And Greg was no asteroid, only some invisible junior. Rose may have wanted to dance with him, but the objects orbiting her would pull her back into their path like always.

He was just turning to slip away when he noticed Pearl had beaten him to it. She had vanished into the undulating mass of bodies, leaving only the faint but cloying smell of her deodorant in her wake.

"Amethyst. We're going too." Before the smaller girl could argue, Garnet took her by the upper arm and marched off to the other end of the dance floor. Which left only him and Rose. Together. Alone. Or as alone as they could get in a gym filled with the entire student body.

"So," Rose said as the music slowed and softened, almost like she had it under her control as well. "it looks like it's just us for the moment."

"Y-yeah. Looks like." Greg swallowed again. Everyone around them must have heard the noise his throat made; it was loud as thunder. What was he supposed to do? Take her arm? No, that was stupid, the music was slow, it must be a slow dance, he had to-

Rose's hands slipped into his, guiding his palms to her waste. She rested her forearms on his shoulder, clasping her hands around the back of his neck, grinning down at him. Her hair had shifted so a tiny part of it was touching him. Soft, he thought. Like cotton candy.

"I'll lead," she said.

And so she did.

Greg didn't know how long they danced for. One song, two, four, his perception of time melted away. The strung up lights had turned to large blurs of shifting colors, and he could see the music. It flowed around them like water with no care for gravity, pulsing blue and purple and pink. Sometimes they switched their hands, his left holding her right, twirling her, tilting her, bringing her back up but closer than she had been before. When the music quickened, so did they, laughing as they high stepped and jazz squared around each other, spinning in circles and line dancing with the rest when the song everyone knew came on. And then the music was slow again, and soft, and beating like a newborn heart. Rose's dress fell over her like clouds spun into cloth. She was so soft, he thought, and warm. He could have stayed there forever, holding her. She was close now, her lips inches away from his, no, closer than inches, centimeters, split hairs away-

" _Rose?_ " That single word sliced through their moment like a knife, shredding it into a hundred pieces. Greg and Rose looked up at the same time and saw Pearl staring at them with an awful look on her face, dressed in her letter jacket that was decorated with dozens of fencing medals. Some insane part of Greg's brain, noticing how warmly she was dressed, thought " _it's too hot in here for jackets._ " And then he realized that she had been outside. Alone, probably.

"Pearl, hey!" Rose didn't let go of Greg, but held his hand in hers as she turned to face the other girl. Rose sounded happy, cheerful, out of breath and she probably was, but also forced. Greg heard the tension in her voice. The sound of a person carefully cutting the red wire in a bomb. "You missed so many good songs-"

"What are you doing with him?" Pearl's eyes flickered back and forth between him and Rose. They didn't have far to travel.

"We're dancing, Pearl."

"No," Pearl took a step closer. And then another. "no, that wasn't dancing. That wasn't just  _dancing_ , Rose." She sounded hoarse, thick, like she had been crying. Or screaming. "Tell me what that was."

"Pearl, my Pearl-"

"Don't call me that." Pearl was whispering now, and Greg could hear the trembling fury in it. A wash of cold swept over his skin, raced down his spine. People were beginning to look. Pearl was more than upset. She was shaking, a glass sculpture about to shatter. "Don't you dare stand there with a  _boy_  and call me that."

"And what's wrong with me standing with a boy? Or dancing with him if I want to?" Rose was the one getting angry now. It was strange, Greg thought vaguely, sleepily, like he was watching this scene unfold on a TV.  _People handling bombs shouldn't be angry._  It was strange how a voice as kind as Rose's could turn bitter like that. "What's the matter with me if I want to flirt with him?" Pearl's jaw clenched, tighter, tighter. "Or hold him?" Rose's hands were tight around Greg's. Pearl's were fists. "What's the matter with me if I want to kiss Greg? Or any boy or anyone?"

Wrong wire.

" _Because gay girls don't kiss boys!_ " Pearl screamed.

The whole gym went silent. The music cut abruptly, chopped off like a severed limb. If people hadn't been staring before, they were now. Greg couldn't move. He was frozen, a bystander in the opera that was Rose's life. Just a side character.

"Because when a girl kisses another girl," Pearl said, whispering now, her eyes brimming with tears, refusing to let Rose's drop. "it has to mean that she likes girls. Not boys, not Greg. Girls.  _Me._ "

And then she ran. The crowd parted for her like the sea, and Pearl turned, jacket flapping, and ran. Four hundred pairs of eyes turned to look at Greg and Rose, the survivors of the fallout. Several thick moments of silence passed like heavy, plodding footsteps. Loud as an elephant in the room.

"I have to go." Rose pulled away from Greg's hand and went through the closing path of people, graceful even in her flight.

What had he done? What had he done what had he done what had he done? It went through his mind, circling forever and ever like a vulture, a speeding train caught on the same track. He moved to follow Rose, but then a hand was on his shoulder, hard as iron.

"You've done enough." Garnet looked down at him, unsmiling, but not frowning either.

"We have to go get them! P's gonna be-"

"No." Garnet cut Amethyst off, catching her by the straps of her dress. "Rose and Pearl need to solve their own problems. You two are coming with me." Before he knew it, Greg was walking, being steered away, out of the gym by Garnet. He doubted he could have escaped her grasp even if he had wanted to.

The doors of the gym slammed shut behind him, and then they were walking down a deserted hallway. Lines of lockers flickered past in the dark. They passed the faded "Beach City King Crabs" mural, its gigantic and graffiti-covered red crab staring at them as they passed. Greg didn't question Garnet when they walked all the way down the senior hall and past the main office, when they marched across the parking lot or when she steered them into her pickup truck and started the engine. He didn't feel like asking questions. He didn't feel like feeling anything. All he wanted was to be numb, but instead his mind was the aftermath of an explosion.

His leaned his cheek against the cool window as they drove. The lights of Beach City flashed past. The ocean, lit up by the moon, glittered on the sand. The streetlights were their guardians, the sentinels of Beach City. Lighting their way to wherever they were going. The nuclear fallout, the radiation-induced winter chilled his thoughts. Carnage everywhere. Bodies piled on the streets.

"Rose and Pearl need to solve their own problems." Garnet was talking, picking up her sentences like no time at all had passed since their exit from the dance. "But since we're also her friends, you two need to know what's going on so you can help."

"I'm her friend?" Greg squeaked.

Garnet looked at him in the mirror as she put on her sunglasses. "I saw you two dancing. You sure aren't her brother."

"So what?" Amethyst squirmed around in the passenger seat, fiddling with her dress, rolling the window up and down. "What's so important about Rose and Pearl? Pearl has a freaky weird crush on Rose? Everybody knows that."

"Not 'freaky weird'. Inevitable" Garnet adjusted her glasses, which were tinted opaque even though it was the middle of the night. "Greg can tell us how easy it is to fall in love with Rose. So of course Pearl could have. And she did."

"Pearl said Rose kissed her," Greg said quietly. He tapped the plastic car door with his fingers. "she wasn't lying, was she." It wasn't a question.

Garnet inhaled through her nose, let the air go long and slow through barely parted lips. "No. There was a party last year, at Jasper's house. You were still in Junior High, Amethyst, but Pearl was a freshman, and she knew Rose but still hadn't been…taken in by her." Garnet looked at Greg again. "Pearl didn't have a lot of friends before us. She was bullied before Rose found out. And then she wasn't."

"Yeah yeah, we all know Pearl has issues." The wind was sucked in and out, in and out as Amethyst played with the controls. "But what about Jasper's awesome party?"

"That party was not awesome. Jasper's parents got her as much alcohol as she wanted. Which was a lot. Pearl had come to the party with the wrong people. Vidalia, Marty, Dewey. You know them." Greg nodded. Vidalia had been a senior when he was a freshman, but even now her infamy was still legend in the halls of Beach City High. "Vidalia got Pearl really, really drunk. She was doing sword tricks for everyone, throwing them. Rose tried to make her stop. She told Pearl she was taking her home, but Pearl wouldn't let her unless Rose beat her in a drinking game. So they played."

"I remember that party." Greg looked up from the window, thinking back. That night it had been cold, so cold that everyone had been clustered in Jasper's basement, drinking and grinding on each other. It had smelled the way parties always did: like beer and sweat and high school. "Rose matched Pearl shot for shot. She got really tipsy, too."

"I tried to stop her." Garnet gritted her teeth. "But she wouldn't listen to me. I could have carried Pearl out of there, but Rose was going on 'bout something like saving her pride. 'She has nothing', Rose said. "if we carry her out of here, what do you think high school will be like for her?'

So I let her drink. When Rose beat Pearl, she got this weird look in her eye. She wasn't just drunk on the vodka. She was drunk on Pearl."

"They went upstairs together." He had watched them leave, hand in hand. Now that Garnet was telling the story, he remembered her too, watching them go. Her jaw had been clenched then as well.

"So did they do it?" Amethyst asked, quiet for once. Greg could only see the back of her head, her purple hair streaming out the window.

"I talked to Rose later. They made out together. Rose thought, has always thought that it was a mistake. And it was."

"Pearl had a crush on Rose." Greg said. He felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. No wonder she had looked like that when she had seen them. Pearl had been watching her fantasy burn.

"And ever since then, she's loved only her. But Rose has always been able to love anyone." Garnet shook her head and turned off onto a side road. They were pulling up next to the Big Donut. Yellow light spilled from its big windows out onto the cracked pavement, illuminating the weeds that reached in vain for the sky. "Pearl's been telling herself for years that Rose has to be gay. But the truth is, she's more than that."

The ache in his stomach was getting worse. Peal loved Rose, and she thought Rose loved her back. She loved Rose, but Rose loved everyone. Another punch, another slug in his gut every single time that thought ran through his mind. What had he done?

"So…what are we doing here?" Amethyst unbuckled herself but didn't get out of the truck. She was watching Garnet, who stared straight ahead at the building.

"We're doing what I always do when something goes wrong with those two." Garnet reached into the center console and fished around for a moment, withdrawing triumphant with her wallet. "Step one: leave them alone. Step two: get jelly filled donuts and leave them for Pearl and Rose."

"And why are we with you, exactly?" Greg wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. The truck was beginning to feel claustrophobic, its walls pressing in on him. Garnet unbuckled as well and opened her door, letting the cool night air wash into the cabin. She turned in her seat to look at Greg.

"Because next year, I won't be here. But Pearl will be. If you're going to be a part of Rose's life, you're going to a part of Pearl's. There's just no way around it. So you have to know how to take care of them both."

"Wait…" He frowned. What was she saying? "Garnet-"

She grinned. "She loves you Greg. She really does. So don't let her forget it."

With that, Garnet jumped out of the car and began striding towards the Big Donut, whistling to herself. Amethyst and Greg got out at the same time, hitting the pavement, him with tennis shoes, her with bare feet.

"Does this mean I'm gonna have to hang out with you  _and_  Pearl next year?" Amethyest stubbed her toe into the parking lot, chipping away the paint on her nails. "I mean, I think you're cool and all Greg, but the next season of Li'l Butler starts in the fall and I can't miss it to hang around with you-"

"I love Li'l Buttler!" Greg grinned and started towards the donut shop, following Garnet's shadow.

The rest of the night was a sort of blur of donuts and yellow light and Amethyst and Garnet. They all talked together and laughed too, about everything and stupid things. He argued with Amethyst about their favorite Butler character, with Garnet about what the best rock album that year was. Once in a while he thought about Rose and Pearl. Where were they? Still outside the school? Or somewhere else? His gut twisted when he thought about Pearl trying to kiss Rose again, but every time the image of Pearl's hurt came into his head, Amethyst said something funny or Garnet was funny without meaning to, and the three of them cracked up. It was easy spending time with them, he found out. Almost as easy as playing guitar.

He didn't see Rose again that night, or the next. But after they dropped off donuts at the right houses and Garnet dropped him off at the school, he went in to pack up his equipment. His phone buzzed while he was locking up the speakers. Greg drew it out of his pocket and looked at the message she had sent him:

_Everything's going to b OK with P. Srry for leaving. I hope it's OK if I still want to b a part of your universe._

He didn't respond as he packed up, or as he shoved his stuff into the back of his van. Instead, he thought about the dance. How Rose had danced. About Pearl, sitting on a curb by the parking lot, hugging herself because she wasn't wanted inside. About Garnet, standing by Rose for the last four years. Amethyst, who had been born in her orbit.

Maybe Rose wasn't a mystery. He turned the sentence over and over as he packed. What did that leave? Maybe he didn't need to know.

After the work was done, he sat in his driver's seat, staring at the phone. Why was it so hard to talk to her? Why did it seem like the easiest thing in the world?

He wondered if this was really a good idea. Did he want to the whole can of worms that came with Rose, the being pulled into her orbit, the other moons that were vying for time with her planet, all of it? What if he wasn't an asteroid, and couldn't change Rose's trajectory through space?

Did it matter?

It only took him a few seconds to text his reply. When he was finished, he flipped the phone shut, put it in his pocket, and leaned back into his seat. A jelly donut had never tasted so good in his life.


End file.
